I Hate Logistics
by Tigger23505
Summary: New chapter is up.  Finally, far too many distractions in my real life.  As always I own all errors of fact, grammar and logic.  No promises on a new installment, but I'll be working on it.
1. Tasked

Disclaimer: I make no profit from my writing and do not own the Star Trek franchise or the canon characters.

Nebula Galactic, Ivanov Imports and T'Mardis appear by permission of Starquilter57

ECON 721

Applied Socioeconomic Principles

Distance Education Division

Starfleet Academy

Course Description:

Student will complete an independent research project culminating in a paper to be submitted for publication in the Starfleet Institute Review.

Time limit: Student will have 1 year from the date of first consultation with faculty adviser.

Jim stared at the note. Pike was on his case again, and since the subtle reminders and nudges had not worked he had resorted to an old trick.

To: Captain James T. Kirk (Commanding Officer NCC-1701)

From: Admiral Christopher Pike

Subject: Continuing Education

1 Jim, I'm tired of beating up on you on the importance of continuing education

2 Based on the critical success of your last project "Trade-routes, Sail and Strategy" I've taken the liberty of signing you up for Econ 721

a. The good news is that you get along really well with your faculty adviser – me.

b. The bad news is that you only have six months to complete this.

3 I would suggest a study of Logistics as a function of management structure and technology.

4 Looking forward to hearing your ideas on the subject

What really annoyed Jim, was that he had brought this on himself. When you got right down to it, the research for "Trade Routes, Sail and Strategy" had been fun, and it really had helped people start thinking like pirates.

There was nothing else going on at the moment. Outside of his one shift a day on the bridge and the usual reports, he was getting bored with the current survey mission. He really did need a project to so that he wouldn't go nuts.

What could he come up with to a) keep Adm. Pike happy; b) Research out here in the left hind end of space. Hm, Spock was always calling him a cowboy because of the way he jumped into situations on instinct. Cowboys, cavalry, forts, the sutler's store. Sutler's store – that's it. Why was it that everywhere Starfleet built a base, Nebula Galactic put in a mega store? There had to be something there. That wasn't all; Ambassador Selek had gotten married to that innkeeper not that long ago, what was her name? T'Mardis! Wait wasn't she also running some sort of import export service too?

Jim thought to himself that this might just be a workable idea. He would need to do a preliminary search of the literature and historical precedents. He would also need to ask Selek for a favor that might get interesting. If he could get Spock to look over his work before it went to Pike that would improve the odds of it being publishable material.

He looked at the timer in the top right corner of his PADD – time to go to work. He grabbed a couple of apples and headed to the bridge for Alpha shift.

Throughout Alpha shift, he continued to jot down his thoughts on his PADD. Little of real interest was happening on the Bridge as they continued the sweep through this planetary system.

By the end of the shift he had a rough outline of the work that he needed to do as well as a short todo list, primarily people that he wanted to talk to about various elements of the paper.

Outline:

Commonalities between NG and older stores

Successful (Why?)

Sears Roebuck

Wal-mart

IGA (Independent Grocers Alliance)

Unsuccessful (Why not)

Woolworth

W. T. Grant

Montgomery Wards

Technology

Postal Shipping

Rail transport to customer

Truck transport to store

Packaging for delivery to stores

Sears Early innovator in processing

Wal-mart was known to have driven processing time for truck load lots to less than 30 minutes in their processing centers.

Literally a truck full of a single item is unloaded, and all material distributed for shipping to stores on individual pallets of mixed goods.

Warp Speed Transport

Customer is king

Sutlers supplied things that army supply system did not, could not (legal issues, alcohol) or would not (adverse impact on primary mission, cloth, yard goods).

Forts were places of commerce and exchange

Hudson's Bay

Fur Trade Rendezvous (Green River)

Starbases are located in places with tactical, and or strategic importance.

Starbase crews had needs not met by Starfleet Supply Corps.

Peripheral traders worked outwards from starbases meeting needs in outlying systems

Cyrano Jones –

Ivanov Imports

How did management of large organizations like NG and smaller operations like Ivanov select goods for trade?

See if NG was willing to explain their location philosophy

See if T'Mardis was willing to talk about her business model

Examine research data with an eye to seeking patterns from Sun Tzu or Boyd.

Did the individual organizations tend to lose focus over time

Did they fail to react properly to their "tactical" situation?

Did the company have a top to bottom focus?

Management Philosophy

Centralized

Decentralized

Mixed

To Do:

Talk w/ Adm. Pike

Note to self don't grumble about this assignment, much.

Write up the notes into a paper

Contact Ambassador Selek

Contact Ambassador Selek's wife.

After signing the log turning over the watch, Jim headed to his Stateroom. It was time for his weekly (if nothing else is happening) subspace chat with Admiral Pike. He thought to himself, that Pike wasn't going to be a bit surprised that he already had an outline for this project.


	2. Beginning

Disclaimer: Here's the drill – I don't own Startrek; I don't make any money doing this; I have Starquilter57's permission to use those portions of her universe that intersect with mine – Specifically Selek, T'Mardis and Nebula Galactic appear with her permission. Also while I am an untrained amateur I join with Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman and Will Hayden with this final note: If you are tempted to write Fan Fiction without a disclaimer DON'T. The disclaimer Police will come after you and it won't be fun.

* * *

><p>The beginning is the most important part of the work<p>

Plato

* * *

><p>Jim sat at the desk in his stateroom. Staring at his PADD was not going to help him complete the todo list. None of the items on it were particularly pleasant to him. Pike had pushed him into the deep end again. His relationship with Ambassador Selek was to be polite, rocky. This project would either bring them closer together or drive them further apart.<p>

To Do:

* Talk w/ Adm. Pike

* Note to self don't grumble about this assignment, much.

* Write up the notes into a paper

* Contact Ambassador Selek

* Contact Ambassador Selek's wife.

Bringing up the research outline on his PADD and linking it to the terminal he set up the link to Admiral Pike.

* * *

><p>Pike was sitting in his office, it was late afternoon and he was nearly done with office hours. Archer had conned him into teaching introductory tactics again. Worse, the old goat had leaned on the Institute to appoint him as an editor for its Strategic Studies Review. Archer had said to him the day before, "Chris, we need some new blood in tactics and strategy. Old guys like me need to stop writing, we've been out of the game too long and what we write is published only to be polite to us."<p>

There were several good tacticians in the fleet, but it was hard to get them to contribute anything. He had succeeded in getting two of his best students to at least look at writing articles. He hoped both would do so, but he didn't have any firm commitments. The committee would be meeting in another week to rough out the review. He was afraid that all they would get would be the same tired old submissions from the same tired old retired captains, or worse armchair admirals who thought they were still serving in the fleet.

The com terminal on his desk chimed. "Incoming transmission from James T. Kirk."

This ought to be interesting, Pike thought. Jim is ,likely to be mad. I really dumped this in his lap.

"Computer, accept communication."

"Good afternoon Admiral, I hope I've caught you on a good day."

Thanks Jim, how are things going out there."

"Good, though this survey mission is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Oh, by the way thanks for the new project."

"Jim, I hated doing that too you, but you really do need to pay more attention to education. I hope that you've accepted the challenge."

"After I got over being mad at you, I did come up with an idea that I think has some merit. You know how Nebula Galactic is everywhere. I had this idea that there might be some similarity between the old Suttler's Stores in frontier forts, and also some comparisons between Nebula Galactic and some of the older retailers."

"Jim, that's in interesting idea, do you have an outline or something else written down yet."

"I do. Just a second and I'll send you a copy of it."

Pike set his terminal to split screen the video and Jim's outline.

"Jim that looks good. T'Mardis is a nice lady, with an interesting story. I think she will be very helpful. Let me know if you need any help with research materials."

"Ok.

Pike ended the call and cleared the screen of his terminal

* * *

><p>One down, one to go. He wondered how long it would be before he heard from Spock.<p>

**TBC**


	3. Orgainizing Chaos

Disclaimer: Here's the drill – I don't own Startrek; I don't make any money doing this; I have Starquilter57's permission to use those portions of her universe that intersect with mine – Specifically Selek, T'Mardis and Nebula Galactic appear with her permission. Also while I am an untrained amateur I join with Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman and Will Hayden with this final note: If you are tempted to write Fan Fiction without a disclaimer _**DON'T**_. The disclaimer Police will come after you and it won't be fun.

* * *

><p>"The line between disorder and order lies in logistics…"<p>

- _Sun Tzu _

Jim stared at the outline. He needed to pick a place to start working. This project was all about setting up the back ground. There were a lot of people who didn't think that ancient soldier philosophers like Sun T'zu, Mahan, or Boyd were relevant in the _new_ world of phasers, photon torpedoes, warp drives and starships. Admiral Pike was one of the few people who had seen the inner core of their work. A structure that went beyond the technology of the day and concentrated on the effective use of technology. The people that scoffed at Boyd failed to see that the OODA loop diagram was a process, a way of learning to think about things. They also forgot about Boyd's other practical work _Energy Maneuverability_, which was still applicable to impulse powered vessels of all types.

Jim thought some more. Another concept that would need to be carefully laid out was the relationship between frontier outposts and trade. One example of this was the Hanseatic league which moved goods, money and ideas from Russia to England. Much the same sort of interaction happened when the Dhows of the Persian Gulf traveled from Arabia to Africa and Asia.

Now it had all moved out into space. Where the cost of logistics meant that some of the required items of supply for forward bases were not carried by federation supply but instead handled by civilian traders analogous to the Sutler's store of the frontier.

It seemed as though every species discovered so far had an impulse to trade. Minnesota pipe stone was found throughout the North American continent, bartered for other items in trade. Even poor misguided, lost, Columbus had been driven in part by the urge to trade. He had gone west to arrive in the east by an easier route and return home with the riches of the orient, Silk, Jade, and ultimately knowledge. Even space faring peoples as diverse as Vulcans and Ferengi were ultimately traders.

Vulcans and Ferengi what was that story Adm. Pike had told him about Ambassador Selek's bond mate? That was it, she had been kidnapped by a Ferengi trader who was planning to sell her to an Orion slave trader. Only to have the tables turned on him, losing his ship,and almost all of his treasure. It had sounded funny at the time but it was a perfect illustration of the nature of trade on the fringes. He wondered if she would be willing to talk about it.

As he considered the outline, Jim wondered if he had bitten off more than he could chew. He would need to do a lot more research for this project than had been needed for anything else that he had done. And there wasn't a lot of time to get everything done.

Boiling down the outline to the major points there would be seven sections.

Introduction

Commonalities between NG and older stores

Technology

Customer is king

How did management of large organizations like NG and smaller operations like Ivanov select goods for trade?

Pattern seeking: Sun Tzu, Mahan, Jomini, von Clausewitz, and Boyd.

Conclusions and Impacts

Railroads had been one of the keys to the early success of Sears. Mr. Sears had begun with a consignment of watches that he purchased from a jeweler who didn't want them. Sears sold them and purchased more watches he expanding. Moving his operation from Minneapolis to Chicago, he added the partner who gave his name to the company which became Sears & Roebuck.

With another adjustment of the business model they began offering goods and services to mid-western farmers. Many farmers were looking for a better deal on supplies, and other goods than they could get at their local dry goods stores. By using the efficiencies of rail transport, as well as the parcel post services. Needs of farm customers were met.

With the basic business model proven there were still some major problems. Most troubling to the company was a major glitch in order processing. If you ordered from Sears at that time you might get your order, more often you got nothing, repeated deliveries or someone else's order. While the company tried to make good all errors, they needed a better solution. Eventually Julius Rosenwald joined the company and organized the shipping and internal operations. The newly streamlined operation grew even faster.

Jim paused,. there was an important point here. Sears who had been the advertising genius, hadn't succeeded without an organizer working in the background to ensure that things were done right, done on time and done once. Without Rosenwald, Sears & Roebuck would have been just one more small time operation. He would need to emphasize the importance of a good team.

At about the same time that Sears was starting his business. Woolworth was working out the bugs in his idea that you didn't need to sell expensive things if you had the right mix of nickel and dime products. Woolworth stores expanded across America, before falling victim to a loss of focus.

This prompted another thought. It happened a lot in Starfleet, you would start with a focused idea. Then over time the team would loose focus and start adding things that weren't really useful to the original project. The military term for this was mission creep. You had to watch out for it, as it often lead to absurd and unworkable results. For example you might start with a small, nimble fighter at the beginning of the design process and by adding a capability here and another mission here end with something that was no longer nimble, fast or particularly useful.

As he looked at several of the other retailers of the age of American rail he was struck by the difficulty of maintaining an effective organization over a long period of time. They seemed to follow a pattern of visionary beginnings. Someone would find a new idea, develop it and at some point in the company's growth would be bought out, sell out, die or retire. With the departure of the visionary, the core values would gradually shift and eventually the things that had contributed to the initial success of the company would become foreign to the management style of the company. In fact most companies built to exploit a concept never made it past the hand to mouth stage of development.

* * *

><p>The clock on Pike's wall struck one bell. 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. Office hours were now. It was time to head O'Malley's. It took Pike just over ten minutes to replace the hard copy files and papers in their proper places. He took one last look at his terminal and saw that there was a message waiting for him.<p>

_To: Adm. Chrisopher Pike_

_Fm: Cdr. Spock_

_Subj: Strategy and Tactics Article_

_1 In answer to your question I will create a generalized logistics matrix function. Major indices will be transportation, equipment quality, troop training, battle field intelligence, order of battle, and command assumptions._

_2 When the programming is complete the function will be tested against some acknowledged logistical feats:_

_First Bull Run – utilization of transportation_

_Agincourt – Terrain, technology impacts_

_Midway – Intelligence_

_Normandy – Planning, deception_

_Battle of the Bulge – Overconfidence_

_3 If you have any other test cases please let me know._

Pike allowed himself a small smile as he left his office.

* * *

><p>AN Several readers wondered if Spock was going to be a contributor to the strategy and tactics issue. Wonder no more.


	4. Mast

Disclaimer: Here's the drill – I don't own Star Trek; I don't make any money doing this; I have Starquilter57's permission to use those portions of her universe that intersect with mine – Specifically Selek, T'Mardis and Nebula Galactic appear with her permission. The same thing applies to Security Chief Giotto who appears by permission of Bookdragon01. Remember – writing fan fiction without a disclaimer is as dangerous as Opilio season in Alaska. The only thing more dangerous, than no disclaimer is stealing other people's Ocs.

* * *

><p><em>The more a scientific instrument costs, the farther you will have to send it away to be repaired.<em>

_The complexity of a scientific instrument is inversely proportional to the IQ of the Instrument's operator._

Murphy's laws of science

As Jim sat at the desk in his day or ready room, he considered the rest of his day. Alpha shift had been the usual mix of tedium and the survey was about half complete. I couldn't end fast enough to suit Jim.

For every hour of _excitement_ battling rogue Romulans there were weeks and months of exercises, drills, reports and inspections. On his desk today as on most days were requisitions, reports and instructions that he was to sign, read or review. Jim was convinced that the only thing that kept every cubic meter of Enterprise from being filled with paper was the existence of PADDs.

The absolute worst of all the routine for Jim was Captain's Mast. He felt like a hypocrite every time he had to assign punishment. But like the sea which had formed much of Star Fleet's traditions, space was a harsh and cruel taskmaster. Details could and did kill, and the accident reports that crossed his desk highlighted all the ways death and injury happened. He would do the job, but he didn't have to like it.

Today there was only one case. He picked up the PADD with the case file and started reading

* * *

><p>(One week ago)<p>

Ltjg Klien was unhappy. There was more than enough real work to do without having to do spot checks on maintenance. It was, however, a required duty. On her last ship, the commanding officer had run the program, on Enterprise the Captain had left it to his First Officer. The Captain was known to grumble under his breath, that no combat ready unit passed inspections. Apparently he was a reader of Murphy's Laws of Combat. Klien, could see his point, but thought that the proper balance between combat and inspection ready improved the odds of survival in combat. Reaching for an emergency light with a bad battery or an empty box of hull seals had the potential to pull a lot of vacuum.

Things had gone down hill when she spot checked the consistency check maintenance on the Gamma Ray Theodolite. The maintenance procedure stated that a consistency took 18 hours, but the maintenance log showed that Astrographer's Mate Baker had done it in 45 minutes. Worse, when she checked the secure storage access logs, it was apparent that Baker was normally conscientious doing the maintenance on the Theodolite. As much as she hated it, Baker had left her no choice in the matter. Charges would have to be filed against Baker.

* * *

><p>Extracts from the technical manual for the Mk 10 Mod 5 Theodolite, Gamma Ray<p>

Function: Emergency Stellar Navigation

Function: Identifies and Locates BLAZAR stellar objects, compares measured spectral profile with stored ephemeris data. Position accuracy of 5 parts per trillion with acquisition of 12 or more BLAZAR objects.

**Maintenance:**

Monthly – Verify proper stowage of Theodolite, accessories and desiccant packs. Change desiccant packs if indicator disk is pink. Estimated Time to complete check 30 minutes

Quarterly – Update and verify Ephemeris data on primary and backup microtapes. Exchange microtapes to balance usage. Estimated Time to accomplish 45 minutes per microtape. Note: At least one microtape must remain installed in theodolite at all times.

Annual – Run consistency check on each microtape using Test Set Mk 318 (series)**Starbase Equipment Only*** or Test App. 74AZZ423, utilizing test fixture Mk 19 Mod 3 on a Mk 12 Mod 29 PADD. Estimated time for this check is 18 hours per data solid. Note: At least one microtape must remain installed in theodolite at all times.

* * *

><p>The door chimed. Kirk set down the PADD. "Enter."<p>

The door slid open and Chief Giotto strode in. Kirk, observed, that there were only two people on Enterprise who walked with that degree of self assurance and controlled power, Spock was the other.

"Captain, we need to get every thing set up for Baker's mast. How do you want to play it?"

"Frankly, I'd like to drop a ton of bricks on him, but then I'd be waiting for the other shoe to drop on me. I think, I'll go with the recommendations in the investigators report. 45 days restriction, 45 extra duty, and Half pay for two months. Restriction to be served when and if we arrive somewhere that liberty is authorized."

"OK sir, Baker, was doing pretty well until this incident. Hopefully, he'll straighten up and fly right."

"Chief, do you think it would do any good to have him stand outside for a while and sweat?"

"Not, in this case, its his first offense, we run the risk of pushing him over the edge behaviorally. We need to play this one fair and above board. Baker was in a hurry to get to the rec room to watch a vintage film festival, a bunch of remastered cartoons, so he skipped the check that one time. I would be surprised if it happens again."

* * *

><p>Jim, needed a task that would help him relax after the stress of Baker's mast. He picked up his PADD and looked at his to do list. He adjusted the filters to show only levels A and B rank ordered from 1 to 10. One of his B5 tasks looked promising.<p>

Starfleet Command had recently started a Senior Command required reading list. Featured books ran from Staff Ride manuals for the battles of Gettysburg and Agincourt to Macaulay's Motel of the Mysteries. The current book was A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Jim had heard of it of course, but had not read it yet. He loaded a copy of it on his PADD.

There was an hour before he needed to get ready for this weeks command team meeting. He leaned back in his chair and began reading.

The timer buzzed, startling Jim. He bookmarked his location and set the PADD down. This was the last week of the current team building exercise. He thought that the next round should be a reading circle where they would discuss the three books that had most influenced them. One professional work, one fiction work and one nonfiction book.

* * *

><p>After the team meeting, Jim decided to continue working on his project. He needed to talk to T'Mardis about her ventures and business philosophy. He reviewed his list of questions before placing the call.<p>

**A/N**

BLAZAR – A unique combination of Quasi-Stellar Object (QUASAR) and BL Lac (Black Hole). It is presumed that the uniqueness of these objects will allow the determination of location in our galaxy using the bearings of several of these objects.

Captain's Mast – A non-judicial punishment for minor infractions of the Starfleet Uniform Code of Conduct. Severe violations are punished by either Summary Court Martial, Special Court Martial or General Court Martial. In TOS _The Menagerie Pt 1_, the Court Martial of Spock was the Starfleet equivalent of today's General Court Martial as they had the power to impose a death sentence on Spock.

Gundecking – A Naval slang term for the falsification of reports or other records.

Baker's Offense and punishment echo one of my favorite short stories, "The Man in the Yellow Raft," by C. S. Forester. The young man at that mast was awarded extra duty to be served during that part of the day that movies were shown to the crew.

Murphy's Laws of Science as far as I know are merely the extension of the famous universal principle.


End file.
